[Expose] An Ultimate Spammer/Plagiarist of Bitcointalk

[naim027]

Hello Community!

I don't visit a few subboards like meetups and Press, because I never find them interesting.
Today I visited the Meetups board a saw a Hero Member guy is the king of that subboard. He has created 20 topics out of 40 Topics on the first page. Interesting. Right?



Let's Dig inside.

Summary Of this Spammer/Plagiarist.

His username is: S3cco
His Rank is: Hero Member
He has posted 1843 Posts so far. 1320(approx) of them Plagiarised.
He owns a website that is Bitcoin Garden. Which he used as a shelter.

Surprisingly, all of the posts made on this website are 99% Plagiarised. This guy doing this for the last five years. can you imagine this? He used this forum as a Traffic source for his website and posted Over 1320 Plagiarised posts.

Post from 2017 Which is also Plagiarised:

SophiaTX – The Blockchain Platform to Redefine Business Models:
https://bitcoingarden.org/sophiatx-blockchain-platform-redefine-business-models/

SophiaTX is a new innovative project led by Equidato Technologies AG, to launch an open source platform aimed at connecting the world of enterprise applications and blockchain. The SophiaTX platform, suitable for businesses of all sizes, will allow a global community of SAP experts, consultants and developers to deliver blockchain capabilities to enterprises across all industries.  The adoption is supported by a marketplace which includes APIs and common building blocks, specifically developed for widely-used ERP and CRM systems and other business applications which will allow for inter-connectivity with their respective APIs all supported by the blockchain network.

Whilst the traditional approach focuses on protecting the company’s internal IT environment, this new approach is driven by fast-paced technological advancements and competitive forces which take it beyond a business’ traditional walls. The potential uses and related benefits of connecting business applications with blockchain are numerous and are in fact likely to grow exponentially once more and more company processes are explored...[/i]

He used his website URL as a source which is also Plagiarized. He posted This post on Bitcoingarden On October 9, 2017, which is this:

The link he used as a source: https://bitcoingarden.org/sophiatx-blockchain-platform-redefine-business-models/

The same Content was Posted on https://www.corecommunique.com/sophiatx-blockchain-platform-redefine-business-models/ on October 2, 2017.

Well, That's an Old Story. Since the Plagiarism rules were still new at that time,

In 2016, I didn't even know this forum existed, but the rule about plagiarism would have only appeared in ~2016 :

If in your case, there is only one case of plagiarism, I would feel like telling you to forget it.
If there are really a lot of plagiarism cases for the same user, you can try to report them.
(This is just my opinion)

You may say that forget it. It's an old story.

Let's Check his Latest posts from 2022 Which were made on April 1, 2022.

2022 CHINA METAVERSE WEEK has officially launched
https://bitcoingarden.org/2022-china-metaverse-week-has-officially-launched/

Metaverse is a new generation technology platform of great commercial and social value. Based on 5G/6G, artificial intelligence, AR/VR, cloud computing, IoT and other new generation information infrastructures, metaverse realizes virtualization and digitization of the real world through large-scale transformation of economic systems, user experience and content of the physical world, and is supported by resource sharing, asset standards and consensus protocols, etc., finally shaped by the continuous integration and evolution of various tools and platforms. According to forecasts by authoritative analysts, the metaverse market will reach $1 trillion in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 13.1%.

And the year 2021 has set off a wave of metaverse, which has brought an all-round immersive experience upgrade from seeing, hearing and now touching and smelling before. Metaverse advertising has also changed from the current one-dimensional plane of single output to a four-dimensional space that consumers can feel, participate, create and traverse, and we have stepped from the visual media into a new era of all-perception media!

Under such background, 2022 CHINA Metaverse Week will be held in Shanghai on May 20-21, for connecting metaverse practitioners and enthusiasts....

He used this link as a Source: https://bitcoingarden.org/2022-china-metaverse-week-has-officially-launched/

The Same post was made on March 10 here https://coincodex.com/article/13883/2022-china-metaverse-week-has-officially-launched/

The last 66 Pages of his posts (1320 Posts) are totally plagiarized. I am not going to report them one by one.  

[ShowOff]

You may not be the first to ask this, but I'm sure many of the users active in this section have known it for a long time. I think the mod has also got reports of that user's activity before regardless of whether he is considered a spammer or a plagiarist for his own website.

What I want to know is, is he breaking any plagiarism rules or is it legit a user is quoting his entire website to this forum which might benefit him?

[naim027]

What I want to know is, is he breaking any plagiarism rules or is it legit a user is quoting his entire website to this forum which might benefit him?

Yes, he is breaking the rule number 33 which is Plagiarism. Allow me quote mprep here:

33. Posting plagiarized content is not allowed.[e]

If you have read carefully, you may have noticed what I have said. Not only is he quoting his entire website, He posting plagiarized content. Since he is not the original author of those content, he doesn't even have the right to post this content on his website. Since no one prevented him to post plagiarized content on his website. he doing it for five years now.

If You are not the author of the content = You are Plagiarist.
Only you can post content with a source link. But, What if the source is your own website and the website itself is fully plagiarized?

[decodx]

Aside from plagiarism, if he posts only to promote his website, then he violates several other forum rules:

1. No zero or low value, pointless or uninteresting posts or threads.
24. Advertisements (including signatures within the post area) in posts aren't allowed unless the post is in a thread you started and is really substantial and useful.

Forum rules

[LeGaulois]

Not that I'm defending the user but there are a few points to consider

- It's called aggregation content and it's a common practice on the web. For example, yahoo's news does the same.
- Now with the Meetups board you mention. Here are others users doing the same, because again, it's a common practice.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5384634.0
cryptotexty.io/aibc-dubai-on-the-20th-to-23rd-of-march-2022/
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5380265.0
cryptonews.net/editorial/press-releases/the-unconfiscatable-bitcoin-not-blockchain-conference-is-back-for-its-3rd-year/

- Since the board is mainly with the goal to post announcements (of meetup) it's quite logical to find copied content. As you can guess, people don't have to format different text for each place it will be published.

He used his website URL as a source which is also Plagiarized

- It's called a press release, something bitcoin garden is doing for years, with sponsored content by the way. Here again, it's a common practice on the web with PR. Companies provide an article and distribute it to PR websites and pay for it, or to blog/websites accepting sponsored articles. That"s how the business works. We can't really blame the person for making money, right? All the examples you posted are press releases or sponsored content.

[naim027]

Not that I'm defending the user but there are a few points to consider

- It's called aggregation content and it's a common practice on the web. For example, yahoo's news does the same.

Well, I never knew that and I am not aware of it.

- Now with the Meetups board you mention. Here are others users doing the same, because again, it's a common practice.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5384634.0
cryptotexty.io/aibc-dubai-on-the-20th-to-23rd-of-march-2022/
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5380265.0
cryptonews.net/editorial/press-releases/the-unconfiscatable-bitcoin-not-blockchain-conference-is-back-for-its-3rd-year/

No matter who is doing and who is not. We should not follow others. Of course, we can follow someone if he does the right thing.

- Since the board is mainly with the goal to post announcements (of meetup) it's quite logical to find copied content. As you can guess, people don't have to format different text for each place it will be published.

I disagree.

- It's called a press release, something bitcoin garden is doing for years, with sponsored content by the way. Here again, it's a common practice on the web with PR. Companies provide an article and distribute it to PR websites and pay for it, or to blog/websites accepting sponsored articles. That"s how the business works. We can't blame the person for making money, right? All the examples you posted are press releases or sponsored content.

I am pretty much puzzled after reading your post. If all of them are Press Releases, the Meetups board doesn't suit there since we have Press Board. Right, We cannot blame the person for making money. According to you, He got money for publishing the news on his website. Not to Copy and paste it on Bitcointalk. He uses Bitcointalk as a Traffic source for his website which can be considered an Advertisement.

I am not sure if any other forums allow that. If Bitcointalk allows that, I will have another opportunity to earn a few bucks.

[lovesmayfamilis]

I will repeat this here.
Are you sure that if a user copies someone else's post from the Internet, but provides a link to the source, are you sure that this source will be the original one?
No, not sure.
Therefore, what you provided cannot be considered plagiarism. Otherwise, start blaming everyone on the internet.

[Pmalek]

To expand on what lovesmayfamilis said, you might have missed this link in his Bitcoin Garden post that was used as the source on Bitcointalk > https://www.eventbrite.hk/e/2022-china-metaverse-week-tickets-284345895227. It appears once as a hyperlink and you can also see the entire link at the bottom of the post where it says "Event Registration". If you compare the text that you quoted about the 2022 China Metaverse Week to the one on the link I just posted, you will notice that the same thing can be found on the site he used as a source. I only checked the part that appears in your quote, not the rest of the text. If the rest can be found there as well, I don't think he will be banned.

His Bitcointalk source is his own post on BitcoinGarden, and the BitcoinGarden post contains links to the content he used. The link isn't indicated in the generally accepted form of Source: link, but it's enough for him not to get in trouble with the forum mods.

[_BlackStar]

I am not sure if any other forums allow that. If Bitcointalk allows that, I will have another opportunity to earn a few bucks.

There's no rule that specifically says it's allowed, but I'm sure it's not against the rules so S3cco was never banned. Well, S3cco has only had 24 posts deleted since 2013, which means mods probably don't see them as spammers on the press board.

There should be some knowledge that you can read in this thread to add some of your insight about reposting your content from the websites you have in this forum and of course it is useful for you so as not to violate rule No. 33. A question about reposting my own content

You may be able to repost your content from your own website here regardless of whether you want to earn from it through advertising, but it is clear that the content must be meaningful and useful to the forum and users, otherwise the posts are not worthy of being on the forum. And now If you can benefit others by linking news sources from random websites here, why should you be afraid to post your own content here, ^{[only comparison].}

[naim027]

Are you sure that if a user copies someone else's post from the Internet, but provides a link to the source, are you sure that this source will be the original one?

His Bitcointalk source is his own post on BitcoinGarden, and the BitcoinGarden post contains links to the content he used. The link isn't indicated in the generally accepted form of Source: link, but it's enough for him not to get in trouble with the forum mods.

Well, As I have already said, I am pretty much puzzled right now. In my opinion, That should not be allowed. If every news aggregator starts posting the content on the press or meetups board, The board will easily be flooded with spam. You can post these as a reference on some kind of discussion. But, Creating a low-value thread for each Press release shouldn't be allowed. If tens of the aggregator owners create 10 threads with the same title and post, and they add their website link as a source, The Entire Bitcointalk will be plagiarized. Still, It's just my opinion. I have Already PM'ed mprep about this and got this reply from him.

I don't really handle a lot of plagiarism reports so I don't think I can really pitch in. I've forwarded this to theymos and I'll see what he says.

Let's see if @theymos responds here.

[Pmalek]

The board will easily be flooded with spam.

The Press board unfortunately already is a spam mega fest. The majority of the threads are just copy-pasted articles from outside sources (properly referenced sometimes) with no personal opinions stated, or you can find a question like "what do you think about this", or something similar. 

You can post these as a reference on some kind of discussion. But, Creating a low-value thread for each Press release shouldn't be allowed.

I agree, however, the topic of discussion of this thread of yours is not spam and low-effort posting, it's plagiarism. I don't believe they will be flagged as plagiarized because of the reasons I mentioned previously.

Are such posts low-effort and spam? I think they are and I don't like reading them unless the thread starter manages to create an interesting discussion around a certain idea or piece of information.
Are similar threads in the Press board deleted after being reported? No. The admins don't agree with the reporters and don't consider them spam or low-effort. You can take a look at this Meta discussion that o_e_l_e_o created back in November on the problems we see in the Press board.     

[Lucius]

Are similar threads in the Press board deleted after being reported? No.

They have not been deleted, but all of them that I personally reported have been locked - which means that the order can be maintained in that board, but not in a way that someone opens a new thread in Meta and says that such reports are a waste of time.


As for the post on Meetups board, I don't think anyone has paid too much attention to that part of the forum so far, so maybe they haven't noticed what's going on there. If I understood correctly, the user in question posted content on his website that was originally copied from another site, and then presented it on the forum as its content?

No matter how someone tries to explain it, it doesn't seem to me that this is the right way to advertise your site - because each thread contains a link to the owner's site, although many do it all over the forum, and as far as I understand mods are not very inclined to prevent it (or members do not report it at all).

[Pmalek]

They have not been deleted, but all of them that I personally reported have been locked.

That's good news. I didn't know the mods locked them. I remember that nothing happened after the reports were submitted and people complaining in Meta that nothing was being done.

If I understood correctly, the user in question posted content on his website that was originally copied from another site, and then presented it on the forum as its content?

The content on Bitcointalk had a source to his BitcoinGarden threads. One topic on BitcoinGarden (only the one that I checked) contained a hyperlink to the source he copied from and the source link was also posted at the bottom of his post. Because of that, I don't think anything will happen unless some of his other threads don't contain any links at all.

[theymos]

I was asked to weigh in regarding moderation policy in this case:

This is an unusual, borderline case. In most contexts, constantly posting links to your own site would be considered excessively spammy regardless of what was on the site. In most contexts, so much copy/pasting (even "laundered" via a site you own) would be considered plagiarism. But because the Meetups and Press boards are more-or-less meant for the sort of aggregation that he's doing, and because it looks like he was given permission to post these press releases on his site, I'm leaning toward thinking that his activities look more like contributing (ie. working toward the purposes of the Meetups and Press boards) and less like spam/plagiarism, especially since he doesn't have very high posting volume and he doesn't have a paid sig.

My conviction that this is the best result is not strong, but that's where I fall for now.

(I am somewhat sympathetic to the idea that the Press board should be closed, but that's a separate question.)

[lovesmayfamilis]

I can show another user who posts on the forum and offers a link to his site. After checking his site, I also found a lot of plagiarism, which is complemented by links to sources.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3457469

After asking why the user is doing this, he justifies himself that his site is also a news aggregator.

Source: https://www.coinshots.com/news/member-of-the-e-u-parliament-says-crypto-transactions-shouldnt-be-anonymous

OP, I'm about to ask you more than once why you copy forum posts from your site, and post a link to them, at a time when the original information was taken by you from other sources?
In this way, you promote your site, which has nothing original, by regularly providing news, copying from the Internet.
It's not exactly the right business.

We are a news aggregator and we distribute crypto news as and when it happens, earlier we were just posting the snippets but some BTCtalk users asked us to post links too hence we are adding links.
do let us know if posting links is against forum rules.
Our mission is to distribute updates as they happen.

However, after submitting a report to the moderators as a post of little value, all reports were determined to be positive, and the posts were deleted.



I think that's how you can define such behavior.
A post copied from your site, but having copied material, is simply not important for the forum - rule number 1.

[naim027]

~Snip~

Thanks for your clarification.
Even though I think this should not be allowed on this forum, Still I cannot do anything if the forum allows him to do that. Yep, Press and Meetups board shouldn't exist anymore. If you create a poll and ask members about it, Over 90% of people will vote to delete those boards. I doubt if 1% of people visit these boards.


Do you guys think this thread should be locked? Or should I keep it open for further discussion?

[Pmalek]

<Snip>

If we set aside the spam argument for a minute and focus on the plagiarism aspect, can you provide some more information why you think the posts are plagiarized? I would like you to consider what I wrote in my previous post here and tell me is my reasoning right or wrong? I am only talking about that specific thread and its OP.

[Lucius]

(I am somewhat sympathetic to the idea that the Press board should be closed, but that's a separate question.)

The Press board just needs stricter moderation and new rules to get rid of link&signature spammers. If the rule of one thread per user/per week were introduced, no one would be able to use that board for any kind of abuse. As an alternative to the first option, perhaps anyone who wants to publish threads on that board should first get approval.

That's good news. I didn't know the mods locked them. I remember that nothing happened after the reports were submitted and people complaining in Meta that nothing was being done.

As far as I know, no one is reporting those threads, the thread in the Meta you are referring to was more of a sarcastic attempt to declare that spammer the spammer of the month or something like that. Now the situation in the Press Board is pretty good, although one may ask what is or is not a notable source of news, or why someone publishes non-Bitcoin news.

If you create a poll and ask members about it, Over 90% of people will vote to delete those boards. I doubt if 1% of people visit these boards.

I have already expressed my opinion on this, but if we are going in that direction, then most common sense members of the forum would agree that Altocins boards should be deleted as the main source of spam and scam. The impact of Press&Meetups boards on the quality of the forum is minimal, although I completely agree that no one should be allowed to use them to advertise their sites by posting dozens or even hundreds of links.

Do you guys think this thread should be locked? Or should I keep it open for further discussion?

Since the admin has also joined the discussion, you should leave the thread open for now, maybe this is an opportunity to finally clarify some things.

[LeGaulois]

(I am somewhat sympathetic to the idea that the Press board should be closed, but that's a separate question.)

To disable the signature space for this section is a less radical option to choose from. Reinforced with the criteria of a "notable" source as it's advised somewhere in the guidelines is probably enough.

We use a forum to talk with people and the press board allows us to talk about the latest news. For some users busy IRL, that's a quick way to read the latest without going to the media too.
Debating the news is to me more interesting than many topics that are repetitive and redundant

[Lucius]

To disable the signature space for this section is a less radical option to choose from.

That would be only a partial solution, because those who spam links do so for the reason that they are paid for shilling those links. Paid signature (if they have it) is just an additional source of income. However, I agree that it is necessary to find a way to prevent those with bad intentions from abusing the forum (all boards), instead of moving in the direction of closing boards - although this is the easiest thing to do.

What we may forget is the fact that we will only move the problem from one board to another board, because for some members the whole forum is one big Press board in terms of posts consisting of several c/p sentences and sources.